Finance Major as a Premed

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BigY3997

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So I'm currently a senior in high school and plan on being premed (MD) this fall at the university i choose to attend.still deciding between rutgers, uconn, penn state, and waiting on responses from NYU, GWU, lehigh, fordham, u of miami
my thought process is to not major in a science and I think that business, specifically finance, is a good choice for 2 reasons.
1- its different, and from what I know medical schools love different/unique
2- a business education can be an extremely valuable thing for a doctor running a practice
My question is how legitimate are those points? will i be putting myself in a situation where a competitive gpa would be too difficult to achieve by majoring in finance and also completing premed courses? realistically, by majoring in finance will i actually look better than the guy who majors in bio or premed or anything similar? lastly which of those schools would be a good premed school?
Also, How difficult is it to also pledge a fraternity while maintaining a high gpa?
thanks

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Med schools don't care what you major in. You don't get significant bonus points for having an "interesting" non-science major, nor do you get points taken away by being a-typical.

I'm not sure about your second point, as I have no plans to run a practice myself, but I would guess that it couldn't hurt. Your ability to maintain a high GPA while taking classes for your major and med school pre-reqs will depend entirely on your own abilities and the difficulty level of the classes at the school you end up attending. I think it should be possible, but won't be easy.

Pledging a frat while maintaining a high GPA would depend on the frat...ask people wherever you end up.

You might also change your mind about what you want to major in/what career you want to pursue once you've taken some classes, so please keep an open mind. Do what interests you, not what you think med schools want to see.
 
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The best thing to major in is what really interests you. If you like finance, then great, major in that, get great grades and do well in the prereqs! I wouldn't touch finance with a ten-foot pole because I think it's boring, but everyone has different interests. Find what suits you and you really find interesting and you will tend to get better grades.
 
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If you are for some reason really interested in finance, sure. But it's not going to benefit you in admissions – if it were me reading your application, I'd just think you were really into money and not very intellectually curious. Study whatever you want to study and stop worrying about where it's going to get you.
 
We don't care about majors or minors, only that you do well. Save unique for your ECs.

1- its different, and from what I know medical schools love different/unique

Can't argue with that, but keep in mind that doctors will mostly be working for someone lese in the future, not themselves.
2- a business education can be an extremely valuable thing for a doctor running a practice

Only you can answer this.
will i be putting myself in a situation where a competitive gpa would be too difficult to achieve by majoring in finance and also completing premed courses?

No.
realistically, by majoring in finance will i actually look better than the guy who majors in bio or premed or anything similar?
 
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2 is a good point, 1 not so much. if you're doing what you enjoy and it's different, yes it can help (I spent a large portion of one interview discussing problems between the tech field and the medical field), but it's not the fact that it's different, it's if you can make yourself stand out in interviews because of it...but only if you're very articulate about it.
 
If i say that i want to study finance so that I can be a better business minded doctor because I think that being a doctor requires many business interactions with pharma reps, insurance companies, running a practice, expanding medicine in a business/fianncial way, etc; will the admissions people just think I'm in it for the money, and in other words could i possibly be hurt by seeming like i actually know about money and not solely helping people or the pure love of medicine (not to understate the importance of those in any way)
 
Omg future frat star in the making; I could sense it even before your last paragraph

Why don't you start undeclared, and decide about finance later on? Focus on nailing your premed pre-reqs as you adjust to college life, volunteer with real live patients, and have fun in your frat. Second semester of your freshman year, or first semester of sophomore year, when you'll be experienced enough that you can handle the rough curve of an intro Econ course, take Econ 101 or whatever you need to get started on a finance/business major. If you have a knack for it, pursue it.

Tl;dr: Don't decide yet either way. If you're serious about medicine, take a semester or two to prepare yourself for that path and decide if it's right for you. Test finance out later on.
 
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If finance interests you, then by all means go ahead. An additional advantage to doing so would be that should you one day decide to turn away from premed, a BA in finance might end up being more economically useful than e.g. a BA in biology or biochem.
 
If you think finance is interesting, go for it. But most of the skills you will learn (except maybe accounting) will actually not be that useful for running your own practice.
 
Go for it. You'll learn all the science you'll ever need in the pre-reqs and medical school. Use your time in undergrad to pick up practical knowledge you wouldn't otherwise acquire. I majored in business administration with no regrets.
 
will i be putting myself in a situation where a competitive gpa would be too difficult to achieve by majoring in finance and also completing premed courses?
thanks

I have a degree in the hard sciences and a degree in business. Business classes, including finance, were leaps and bounds and laughably easier than any p-chem, quantum, advanced labs, calc 2/3, or heck even Ochem. If anything, a business degree with pre-req's on the side is taking the easy route IMO. Although I did learn a lot in the finance classes I took that will be really useful in life down the road.
 
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I have a degree in the hard sciences and a degree in business. Business classes, including finance, were leaps and bounds and laughably easier than any p-chem, quantum, advanced labs, calc 2/3, or heck even Ochem. If anything, a business degree with pre-req's on the side is taking the easy route IMO. Although I did learn a lot in the finance classes I took that will be really useful in life down the road.

I might disagree with that a little bit. I demolish my science classes, but I struggled a bit in the finance class I took. But that's because I hated it and love the science stuff. Like I said before, I think level of interest is a major factor in determining easiness.
 
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